A consultancy team led by one of Scandinavia’s leading architectural practices, CF Møller, which also includes staff from London practice Avanti Architects, has won the architectural competition for the biggest hospital construction project in Danish history.
To be built over the next 12-15 years for Region Mid-Jutland, the 250,000ft2 New University Hospital in Aarhus will be added onto the existing 150,000 ft2 Aarhus University Hospital in Skejby, with the combined development expected to be “the size of a Danish provincial town”. It will function as a university hospital, regional centre and basic hospital for the region’s citizens. The hospital design incorporates “a large degree of flexibility to accommodate future requirements in terms of new technology, forms of treatment and working practices”, and, the developers say, should bring “a considerable qualitative lift in the experiences of both patients and staff”.
The complex, expected to cost between DKr5.5 m and DKr6 m (£547 m - £597 m) to build, will be divided into “professional communities” with their own identities, and will comprise three main elements – a two-storey base with treatment areas, four storeys of wards, and a central “Forum” arrivals area, with public functions located at the foot of three tower blocks housing administration, research facilities and patient hotel. The ground floor will house the main reception area and “outwardly-directed” functions, including a conference centre, shops, banks, a cinema and other service functions.
Tom Danielsen, architect and partner at CF Møller, added: “The hospital complex will be organised like a town, with a hierarchy of neighbourhoods, streets and squares providing the basis for a diverse, dynamic and green urban area.”
Four consultancy teams competed for the commission; the winning DNU consortium is “strongly anchored” in the region.
Project leader CF Møller has offices in Denmark, Norway, Sweden and Iceland and an 18-strong London branch currently working on a variety of cultural, commercial, industrial and residential projects in the UK.
Islington-based Avanti Architects, meanwhile, is a medium-sized design-led architectural practice with a turnover of over £4.5 m whose clients include the City of London, English Heritage, The Children’s Trust, Notting Hill Home Ownership and several NHS Trusts. The two companies have collaborated over the past two years to enable them to bid for significant projects both in the UK and abroad.
